Memories of the 1890 Flood

The flood in late March 1890 forced the Hill family to leave Bullamon homestead and camp on a nearby sandhill. During this flood water reached a depth of 2 feet 2 inches (about 66cm) in the store at Bullamon Head Station and has not been equalled since, even by the major floods of 1974 and 2010.

The family’s possessions were moved through the flood water on an improvised horse-drawn punt. Edward Hill’s granddaughter Mrs Dorothy Dearden recalled being told that for her father, Jim Hill, and his brothers, Harold and Jack, who were all children at the time, this was the best fun they ever had. It would have been much less fun for their parents, sharing their refuge with snakes and spiders as well as flies and mosquitoes and worrying about the impact of the flood on the station. 

Letter books found by Vaughan Baker and his brother in 1967, in the roof cavity of the homestead, provide a detailed first-hand account of that impact. Read the 1890 Annual Report with on the link below.

With mails having ceased in early March due to boggy roads and flooding, the people at Bullamon were unaware of the heavy rain that had fallen in the headwaters of the Moonie, Balonne and Maranoa Rivers and as Edward Hill wrote “the first intimation (of the coming flood) was the river overflowing its banks”. 

The Balonne overflowed into the Moonie with the Bullamon paddocks west of the Moonie being inundated and many sheep in them drowned. Two paddocks not far from the homestead were “swept clean by the floods, not a hoof remaining in either of them”.  In his annual report to the Australian Pastoral Company’s agents, Edward Hill wrote “… at Nindygully the house was nearly destroyed and at the Head Station all hands had to take refuge on an adjacent sandridge. I have estimated the loss of sheep by this flood at 32000 Ewes, 830 Wethers 14500 Weaners 7000 Summer Lambs 3343 Rams 47 Cattle and 43 Horses, the Ewes I think have been rather underestimated…”. 

He explained that losses had been higher than he had first expected due to ewes that were alive after the flood “having died since through having to stand in the water so long during the flood time, there being no dry ground for Miles and Miles.” 

There was no known loss of human life on Bullamon during this flood, but lamb markers working west of the Moonie had to take refuge in trees when they found their retreat blocked by water coming down the Glear watercourse. The flood swept away galvanised iron water tanks and caused extensive damage to wells, dams, ring tanks, troughs and fences. 

There was no damage to wool remaining in the Bullamon wool shed, a few miles north of the homestead, the water having stopped a few inches below the floor.

Boggy roads and flooding halted carriers’ wagons, on which Bullamon relied for its food supplies. During the 1890 flood, teams carrying flour from the railhead at Narrabri to Cavanough’s store at St George had camped near Bullamon and Edward Hill purchased 1 ton of that flour for £20 (Twenty Pounds).